Faith City Ministries opened Juliette's Closet and Funky Junk in December to supplement its hard-pressed budget and leverage excess donations of clothing and household items that generosity provided.

Juliette's Closet and Funky Junk

What: Thrift stores operated by Faith City Ministries

Where: 3210 Sixth Ave.

Information: 806-322-1105

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday

How to donate clothing or household goods: Donations may be dropped off at Faith City Ministries, 402 S.E. Second Ave. If donors specify they are for Juliette's Closet or Funky Junk, they will be sorted for that purpose.

Faith City Ministries missions

Family Lighthouse, temporary housing for families and women.

Hope Program for men and women, a 12-month alcohol and drug recovery program

Meals for the poor and homeless six days a week

Emergency food boxes

Clothing and household supplies

Employment services

Chapel services

Where: 401 S.E. Second Ave.

Information: 806-373-6402

The stores, at 3210 Sixth Ave., are neighbors - you can park once and shop twice - though they merchandise differently. Juliette's Closet is 2,800 square feet worth of donated women's clothing suitable for work or recreation. A rack of dress coats, including furs, is in one corner. Funky Junk piles, stacks and hangs dishes, furniture, home accessories and bicycles in its 1,180 square feet.

Jena Taylor, executive director of the almost 60-year-old downtown ministry, expects the two shops to bring in about $100,000 in the first year to plug budget holes that developed during the recession of the last two years due to increasing needs and declining donations.

"We are having a spike in the number of families who are eating at Faith City, not just the homeless, and there's a spike in that as well," Taylor said. "But by the same token, because of the economic downturn, donations are not what they have been."

About 9,600 hot meals were served in January in the dining room that is open for three meals a day, six days a week. In addition, 1,664 sack lunches were distributed to day laborers or those who prefer to eat away from Faith City. The ministry budgets $10,000 per month for food and cooks more than a ton of meat.

"We want to give them hearty meals. When it's cold and you're on the street, it's hard," Taylor said.

The budget, which runs from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, is $945,000 for 2010, down from the $1,494,000 budgeted for 2008.

Ergo, the thrift shops.

"Our first goal is to provide for our guests and those off the street, but we get a lot of clothing the guests aren't going to wear like dry cleanable (items) or prom dresses. We realized we could take those items and start the boutique," Taylor said.

Faith City leaders chose Sixth Avenue because they believed the historic Route 66 cachet would draw both locals and tourists. All proceeds will be used to feed, clothe and house the poor, Taylor said.

These additions to Amarillo's thrifting landscape, which includes other charity shops like Thrift City, which benefits Downtown Women's Center, and the Salvation Army thrift store, are among the 9,000 similar nonprofit operations that support churches, charities and other philanthropies, according to TheThriftShopper.com, which compiles a directory of such stores.

"We found out that across the nation that a lot of homeless shelters are using donations to open thrift stores and boutiques," Taylor said.

Board member Josh Wood researched thrift operations in similarly sized cities and with similar space restraints.

"When I was researching and calling to different stores it became readily apparent that their programs revolve around the "teach a man to fish" principle," Wood said, referring to the Chinese proverb "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."

"Even if the stores just break even, the jobs it could provide for people going through the (Hope) program was worth while."

Store traffic will provide a greater audience for the core mission of Faith City, which is rehabilitation through Christian faith, he said.

"It's a unique forum that Faith City hasn't had before to reach more people and touch more lives."